As it is generally known, contemporary used electronic mail systems often include some kind of auto-responder system, typically referred to as an “out of office” feature, and/or sometimes as an “away auto-responder” or “vacation auto-responder”. In existing systems, the out of office mechanism is integral to the electronic mail system, and allows the user to specify a range of dates during which they will be out of the office. Existing systems then cause the electronic mail system to automatically respond to messages received during the specified dates. The range of dates that the user can specify for the out of office auto-response period can be at any point in the future. However, a significant shortcoming of existing systems is the lack of any way for a user to set up more than one out of office period at a time. The out of office period is not treated as a calendar entry, and is not visible to the user through their electronic calendaring system, making it difficult to plan meetings and activities.
Thus it would be desirable to have a new system for managing out of office periods that allows a user to set up more than one out of office period at a time, and that also provides integration of out of office periods into the user's electronic calendaring system and user interface.